The California Environmental Protection Agency
(Cal/EPA), the state agency charged with restoring,
protecting and enhancing California’s environment,
and to ensuring the state’s public health and
economic vitality, has a
library full of resources about our environment.
The library is open to the public, and Cal/EPA staff
will try to fill interlibrary loan requests from
public libraries.

New
Cal/EPA building in Sacramento.

The Cal/EPA library combines the libraries of the
Air Resources Board, Integrated Waste Management
Board,
and the Department of Toxic Substances Control, agencies
that joined when they all moved into the
magnificent Cal/EPA building in downtown
Sacramento in the late nineteen-nineties.

Cal/EPA collection

Because Cal/EPA’s collection reflects
subject interests of the
Air Resources Board, Integrated Waste Management
Board and
the Department of Toxic Substances Control, it
addresses everything from
air pollution to recycling to hazardous waste. Under
such headings as Scientific literature, Legal
Research,Business/Industries and Maps,
customers will find over 200 journals dating
back to the 1960's,
100-150 active subscriptions, and over 20 thousand
hard copy reports and texts, many of which
professional Cal/EPA staff has written.

The Air Resources Board (ARB), a national leader in
air pollution sciences, has a large
collection comprised largely of reports
concerned with air pollution and atmospheric
science, a field that addresses not just automobile
exhaust but how power plants, tobacco smoke,
perfume, and even air purifiers can compromise
California’s air resources.

Cal/EPA Library team proud of customer service

Cal/EPA‘s Supervising Librarian, John Hoffman, a
librarian since 1987, says that like many people who
work at Cal/EPA, he has always had an interest in
protecting California’s natural resources. “I
backpack the Sierras and the Lost Coast and I want
to see incredible ecosystems like those protected
and safe. The work we do at the Cal/EPA library
supports California’s scientists and researchers in
their efforts on behalf of California’s
environment,” Hoffman says.

Indigenous landscaping at Cal/EPA entrance.

Cal/EPA’s engineers and scientists do much of their
research in universities, laboratories and in the
field, so they rely on the Cal/EPA library for what
Hoffman calls their “bibliographic needs.” “We
search the literature for them and track down books
and journals in their field,” he says.

Hoffman’s staff includes Department of Toxic
Substances Control Librarian Marianne Leach, two
library technical assistants, an information
technology specialist, and a staff analyst. “When
our customers - staff, other librarians, and members
of the public - seek California environmental
materials, our library team is ready. Anyone can
call us or use the email address in on the contact
page on our website. We also welcome customers in
our reference center.”

At the Cal/EPA library’s reference center in
Sacramento customers may quickly look-up directories
for various environmental and government agencies,
legal materials concentrating on the regulatory
aspects of environmental law such as the California
Code of Regulations, scientific resources such as
the Kirk Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical
Technology and a host of other materials.

In addition to using the Cal/EPA
Library for interlibrary loans,
people who work in libraries will find the library’s
website an excellent online resource for customers
researching environmental issues. The Cal/EPA
Library catalogs are available
online as are a list of related
links.

For more information about Cal/EPA Library services
please contact John Hoffman at (916) 323-2257.